WE HAVE SEEN that the Norman frontier in South Wales came to an
end only a century after its inception. Viewed against the broad
sweep of British history, a century is a rather short time, and
South Wales but a small corner of the island. It is well to
remember, however, that this century was a long enough period for
three generations to pass through the experience of frontier
life, and that three generations of men are quite sufficient to
leave a deep impression upon the society of the region in which
they live. This was especially true in South Wales, where the
three frontier generations established a set of traditions and a
way of life which were both distinctive and enduring and which
even today have set South Wales apart from the rest of
Britain.1

Neither the duchy of Norman nor the monarchy of England had ever
devised a governmental policy which enabled them to stabilize and
regularize the marcher regions which lay along their borders.
Generally speaking, the marches lay beyond the power of central
authority, and beyond the pale of society dominated by that
authority. Social and political institutions are basically
designed to promote stability in the society which adopts them.
They are maintained, however, at the price of personal liberties,
and, historically speaking, the social institutions which have
promoted social stability have also acted to limit social
mobility. Such at least appears to have been the

1A number of uniquely Welsh characteristics are noted
by C. Hughes,
Royal Wales: The Land and Its People.

152 The Normans in South Wales

case in medieval England. These restrictive social and political
institutions extended into the marches of Wales only in the most
attenuated form, and, for this reason, the frontier was a land of
opportunity. Slowly at first the settlers began to move into the
area. Not only Normans and English, but a variety of peoples
came-French, Flemish, Breton, Angevin, and others. Each of these
peoples brought witty them their own peculiar ideas of how things
were to be done, and they brought them into an area where
generally accepted modes of behavior were at a minimum. Far more
than in the firmly established societies of Europe, the men
of the Welsh frontier were at liberty to develop their own
institutions and to work out their own destiny.

The various regulating institutions of early England-the king,
the Church, and others-set limits upon the lengths to which the
innovators might go. By and large, however, the settlers of South
finales seem to have been allowed to draw upon their cosmopolitan
background, and to devise a way of life by which they could adapt
to the peculiar conditions which characterized the Welsh
frontier. The frontier society of South Wales was subjected to a
number of unusual stresses: the cultural diversity of its
members, a chronic lack of manpower, the necessity of
accommodating large numbers of native Welsh within the social
order, the constant threat of encroachments by unconquered Welsh
tribesmen, the desire not to stray too far from the mainstream of
life of Anglo-Norman society the desire to prevent royal and
ecclesiastical domination, the goal of exploiting the frontier
through further conquests-the list could be endless. These and
other pressures reshaped the traditions and institutions which
the early settlers brought with them, and gave them new emphases.
A society emerged with certain peculiarities which set it apart
from the rest of Anglo-Norman society. In the present chapter we
will discuss four aspects of the Cambro-Normans' way of life, in
an attempt to show that these peculiarities simply reflect the
special stresses to which their frontier experience had subjected
them.

(a) The Marcher Lords

Perhaps the most distinctive of the institutions of Cambro-Norman
society was its peculiar political and judicial system.
Throughout England, the Middle Ages saw the slow extension of
royal authority in virtually every area of life, and the
parallel standardization of usages and elimination of localism.
In the marches of Wales, however, these processes were completely
arrested and, in some instances,

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 153

even reversed. The political structure of the Welsh frontier was
anything but monolithic. Norman holdings were composed of a
series of semi-independent lordships, each dominated by its
marcher lord. The marcher lord was a semiregal figure, supreme
within his own realm. The king's writ did not run in the marcher
lordships of the Welsh frontier, and each lordship was like a
petty kingdom, possessing its own parliament and system of
justice.

The marcher lords claimed the right to their own personal
chancery, and it is apparent that many of them exercised this
right. One would expect to find that the records of these
chanceries would provide reasonably full accounts of the
legislation and administration of the Cambro-Norman lordships.
Such is not the case, however, for the records which these
chanceries must have compiled have been completely lost though
some individual charters which they issued have survived. It is
difficult to discover the cause of this loss, but the answer may
lie in the destruction attending the English Civil War. When the
marcher lordships were abolished under the Tudors, the center of
administration for Wales was established at Ludlow in Shropshire.
It may well have been that the records of the chanceries of the
marcher lordships were removed to Ludlow at this time to be
placed in a central repository. The city was almost completely
destroyed in the course of the Civil War, and it may be that the
records were lost at that time.2

Whatever the possible cause of their disappearance, most of the
records are no longer available, and we must gain our information
largely from other sources. Royal records provide the most
important of these sources: pleas to the crown, inquisitiones
post mortem feudal services owed to the crown, and records of
escheats, especially when royal officials administered a lordship
for a reasonably lengthy period. The fact that we must depend
mainly upon royal records creates great difficulties in
evaluating the political life of the marcher lordships. We have
seen that the most distinctive characteristic of these
lordships was their extensive independence from royal authority.
And yet, our major data concerning the lords and their lordships
comes most often from those instances in which they come into
direct contact with agencies of the crown. We know when the
marcher lords quarrel and appeal to the king, or when local
government breaks down and royal authority steps in to administer
an area. We

1G. T. Clark,The Land of Morgan. Being a
Contributions towards the History of the Lordship of
Glamorgan, pp. 26-27

154 The Normans in South Wales

know but little of the orderly and regular workings of the
Cambro-Normans' legal and political system, and of the
cooperation which must have been characteristic of the invaders'
way of life. In short, the data which we do possess is such that
the student must infer the rule from his knowledge of the
exceptions.

We do, however, possess an appreciable amount of information
Concerning the powers and privileges of the marcher lord himself,
the focus of the Cambro-Norman political system. In the course of
time, the processes of standardization and of extension of royal
authority reached the Welsh frontier, and attempts were made
to strip the marcher lords of their traditional, but anomalous,
rights. The border barons vociferously protested such attempts,
and, in so doing, threw some light upon the nature and extent of
the privileges they were defending.

The marcher lords recognized the fact that they were feudal
nobles. They held their land by right of their and their fathers'
conquests, and, as Gilbert, earl of Gloucester, stated, sicut
regale. They were tenants in capite, each holding
directly from the king. They occupied a special status, however.
Their holdings did not form part of the realm of England, and
within them, they enjoyed an almost complete immunity from royal
interference. The royal legalists recognized the peculiar status
of these lordships "in the marches, where the King's writ does
not run."4 In addition, despite the fact that they
were feudal vassals of the kings, the marcher lords denied the
necessity of referring their quarrels to the king's court. On the
contrary, they claimed the right of settling their disputes among
themselves, according to their own customary law, the Law
of the March, or even viribus armatis et vexillis
explicatis.5 Their immunity from royal authority
was not absolute, of course, but the conditions under which the
king could interfere were extremely limited:

A lordship escheated to the Crown if there were no heir of age at
the death of the lord, if the lord rebelled or was convicted of
felony or treason,

3British Museum, MS Cotton Vitellius, CX,
folio 172b. This MS has been edited and published by G. T. Clark,
"The Appeal of Richard Siward to the Curia Regis from a Decision
in the Curia Comitatus in Glamorgan, 1248," Archaeologia
Cambrensis, Series IV, Vol. IX (1878), pp. 241-263.

if the lord deserted his lordship in time of war, or if the
lordship were in dispute.

Even in these cases, the lordship was not absorbed into the realm
of England, but, like an honor, it was maintained intact until
again granted as a marcher lordship with all of the rights and
privileges that were attached to this status.

This almost complete freedom from royal interference allowed the
marcher lords to exercise within their lordships many powers
which were elsewhere in England the sole prerogatives of the
crown. They acted as kings in their own right, appointing their
own sheriffs, possessing their own chanceries and their personal
great seals. They had jurisdiction over all cases, high and low,
civil and criminal, with the exception of crimes of high treason.
They established their own courts to try these offenses, executed
sentences, and amerced fines. They possessed all of the royal
perquisites-salvage, treasure-trove plunder, and royal
fish. They could establish forests and forest laws declare and
wage war, establish boroughs, and grant extensive charters of
liberties. They could confiscate the estates of traitors and
felons, and regrant these at will. They could establish and
preside over their own petty parliaments and county courts.
Finally, they could claim any and every feudal due, aid, grant,
and relief. The list of the powers, incomplete as it is, is still
very impressive. Petty frontier barons exercised in their little
lordships powers and privileges which were far beyond the
aspirations of the greatest lords of England.7 They
were the embodiment of sovereignty within their lordships.

Within the lordship itself, the inhabitants exercised a more
powerful and immediate limitation on the powers of the lord. As
we have said before, the frontier suffered from a chronic
shortage of manpower. Each individual man was important to the
security and prosperity of the lordship, be he a trader, an
artisan, a man-at-arms or a simple farmer. The threat of
emigration was an effective and immediate method of coercion by
which the people could maintain a direct voice in the manner in
which the marcher lord exercised the powers at his discretion. At
the same time, the lordships were small,

6W. Rees, South Wales and the March, 1284-1415:
A Social and Agrarian Study, p. 44, n. 2.

7Clark, The Land of Morgan, pp. 24-25.

156 The Normans in South Wales

yielded little profit, and lay in constant danger of Welsh
attack. The threat of civil strife or disobedience was
proportionately more distasteful to the lord.8 The
extensive immunities and powers which the marcher lords
enjoyed were of distinct benefit to the inhabitants of the Welsh
frontier, since the situation gave them an immediate and
relatively responsive ruler, rather than the distant and
all-powerful monarch to whom the rest of England looked.

The symbol of the marcher lord's power, and of his position in
his community, was his castle, and virtually every marcher lord
possessed one. He could build his castles when and where he
pleased, a right apparently denied to the lords of
England.9 The castle represented more, however, than
just a symbol of the lord's power; it was the focus of
Cambro-Norman life. It was not only their refuge in time of war,
but the center of their political life in time of peace.

Each lordship had its castle. We are apt to think of a castle
merely as a military fortification.. But the castle was something
more than a place of defense . . . The Court of the Castle Gate,
as it was called, embodied the courthouse of the old Welsh kings,
though not in spirit. Amid hostile surroundings the courthouse
had now to be fortified...10

The castle was the center of the legal and legislative activities
of the Cambro-Normans. There remains no record of how the
conquerors ordered these affairs. In Glamorgan, however, the
Court of the Castle Gate endured into the sixteenth century. An
Elizabethan author who was familiar with the later practices
attempted to describe what the original might have been. The
survival may indicate some flavor of the original proceedings:

He [Robert Fitz-Hamon] dwelt himselfe in the said
castell or towne of Cardyff, being a faire haven towne. And
bicause he would have the aforesaid twelve Knights and their
heires give attendance vpon him euerie Countie daie, (which was
alwaies kept by the Sherife in the vtter ward of the said castle
on the Mondaie Monethlie as is before said) he gave everie one of
them a lodging within the vtter ward, the which their heires, or
those that purchased the same of their heires, doo enioie at this
daie.

Also the morow after the countie daie, being the tuesdaie, the
Lord his Chancellor sate alwaies in the Chancerie there, for the
determining of mat-

ters of conscience in strife, happening as well in
the said Sherfee as in the members; the which daie also, the said
Knights vsed to give attendance vpon the Lord; and the Wednesdaie
everie man drew homeward, and then began the courts of the
members to be in order, one after
another.11

Whether or not this is an accurate portrayal of twelfth-century
usage, a general picture can be derived from other scattered data
The knights and landowners who gathered at the castle gate formed
both a parliament and a court, a legislative and judicial
assembly. Led by the lord, or by his representative, these bodies
helped to formulate and apply the laws by which the emergent
Cambro-Norman society coordinated its activities. Thus the
lordships were independent, not only of royal authority, but of
each other. Each was allowed to develop its own local usages, and
to treat with its lord as to how and to what extent he would
exercise the massive powers vested in him. Thus it is erroneous
to speak of a Cambro-Norman legal system rather there existed a
number of such systems, flexible and developing independently.
The nature of these various systems was lost with the chancery
records of which we spoke earlier. A single fact stands out
clearly, however. The laws of the Cambro-Normans stood untouched
by the impetus for uniformity and consistency which elsewhere in
twelfth-century Britain was producing the basis for the final
supremacy of English common law.

The Cambro-Norman courts of the Welsh frontier did not recognize
any great need for standardization. Both Welsh and Norman usages
were recognized as valid, and archaic practices were steadfastly
retained. Cases involving Welsh tenure and Norman feudal tenure
were handled indiscriminately by the same court.12
Other lordships maintained both Welsh and English courts, each
administering its special brand of justice.13 Insofar
as Cambro-Norman legal arrangements did achieve some sort of
consistency they represented

a partial fusion of such customary law as was known
to the first conquerors, c. 1100, and Welsh customary law. . . .
the system which thus began developed independently of that
development of the common law in England which rendered the
customs of c. 1100 archaic. No such develop-

ment would have been possible in even the greatest of
English or Anglo-Irish franchises, for the writ of error which
ran in all of them meant that the lord must be careful to see
that the common law was applied in his court if the writ was not
to be used against him, but in Wales this check did not operate,
and local usage could prevail
unhampered.14

This much is clear; the legal systems of the Welsh frontier were
peculiar. They became so and remained so because the immunities
which the marcher lords enjoyed protected the frontier, in large
measure, from the forces which elsewhere were producing
uniformity and centralization. It is impossible to say whether or
not the laws of the marcher lordships were repressive or liberal.
One can only point out that the people of the frontier were free
to develop their own laws in cooperation with a ruler who was
close to them and dependent upon their support. It would be
surprising if they developed a legal system which they did not
find congenial.

It should be evident by now that the political system of the
Welsh frontier was unique, in terms of British constitutional
development. It is also clear that most of those features which
made it distinctive stemmed from a single factor-the extensive
and anachronistic immunities and powers which the kings of
England allowed the marcher lords to enjoy. The question remains
as to why these minor barons were allowed to acquire and exercise
rights which were jealously denied to even the greatest and most
loyal magnates of England. This is not a simple question to
answer. The traditional explanation has been that the rights and
powers were granted partially as a reward for undertaking the
arduous task of conquering the turbulent (Welsh) and partially to
enable them to accomplish this task more easily. This explanation
is, on the face of it, inadequate. It is difficult to explain how
the right to wage private war on one's Norman neighbors or to
have first claim on the royal sturgeon could have aided the
border baron in subduing his Welsh opponents. It is necessary to
look elsewhere for the source of these anomalous privileges.

Sir Goronwy Edwards has considered this problem at some length,
and has arrived at the not too surprising conclusion that the
marcher lords derived their powers directly from the Welsh
chieftains whom

14A. J. Otway-Ruthven, "The Constitutional Position of
the Great Lordships of South Wales," The Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society, Series V, Vol. VIII (1958),
p. 12.

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 159

they replaced.15 This explanation removes many
difficulties. It can easily be seen that the powers that the
marcher lords claimed, and the manner in which they exercised
them, were quite similar to powers and activities of the
lords of the commotes they had conquered. Such a process places
the powers of the marcher lords in their proper perspective as an
unusual, but integral, part of the process of British
constitutional development. The initial principle which had
governed the development of Anglo-Norman society had been that
enunciated by the Conqueror himself-that the Anglo-Saxon system
was to remain, and that the Norman conquerors were simply
replacing Anglo-Saxon tenants. Finally, the grants he made to his
followers carried with them every privilege and obligation which
they had entailed under the English kings.16 It can be
clearly seen that the Normans carried this principle with them
into Wales. Edwards comments:

In Wales, as well as in England, they planted their
feet firmly into the shoes of their antecessores. But in Wales,
of course, their antecessores happened not to be Englishmen. And
that is the historical explanation of the contrast between Norman
handiwork in the March of Wales and Norman handiwork in
England.17

As the border barons moved into Wales, they assumed a dual role-
that of feudal lord and vassal of the king in the eyes of their
Norman followers, and of tywysog for the conquered Cambrians. As
Cambro-Norman society emerged, the two roles became one, and the
functions merged. The formative period came during the reigns
of kings who were either incapable or uninterested in arresting
the process.

Thus it is seen that the almost pure feudalism of the Welsh
frontier came about, not as a result of English or Norman
development? but as the amalgamation of the intensely flexible
institutions of the early invaders and of the relatively
inflexible institutions of the conquered tribesmen. The peculiar
political structure of the marches of Wales was determined in
large measure by the peculiar political system of preinvasion
Wales. In the end result, however? this amalgamation would not
have occurred if it had not worked to the advantage of

15J G. Edwards, "The Normans and the Welsh March,"
The Proceedings of the British Academy, XLII (1956),
155-177.

16F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p.
618.

17Edwards, "The Normans and the Welsh March," pp.
174-175.

160 The Normans in South Wales

those concerned. The possibility of acquiring the semiregal
status of marcher lords drew turbulent and adventurous settlers
to the frontier, and, in some measure, hope may have made up for
the toil, frustration, and failure which was often their lot. The
development of the marcher lord's power also created a
governmental institution which both invaders and invaded could
understand, and through which they might eventually be
integrated. The wide range of powers in the hands of the border
barons allowed them to develop organizations capable of facing
and adapting to the rapidly changing fortunes of frontier life.
Finally, the concentration of power in the hands of the marcher
lord, and his independence of royal authority, provided the
frontiersmen an immediate and responsive government, and the
possibility of individual freedom and power which such a
government brought.

(b) The Church on the Frontier

In the last analysis, Cambro-Norman society faced two great
challenges: to develop institutions which could utilize not only
the lowland environment of Wales but also the uplands which lay
above the 600-foot contour line, and to develop institutions
which could be shared by both the typically lowland culture
of the Anglo-Normans and the typically upland culture of the
Welsh tribesmen. We have seen how the Anglo-Norman conquerors of
the eleventh century failed to meet these challenges, and
attempted to insulate their lowland environment and their
lowland culture through the erection of a line of fortresses. In
the course of time, however, a distinctive Cambro-Norman society
emerged in the area which, in some aspects of life at least,
managed to make a start toward bridging the gaps between the two
cultures. This appears to have been true of the political system
which emerged along the frontier. Let us now turn to the role
played by the Church along the Welsh frontier.

One would think that their common faith would have provided a
meeting ground for the invaders and the Welsh tribesmen. Both
peoples considered themselves as integral pales of the Universal
Church which dominated western Europe. Within this faith,
however, there existed a great range and diversity of practices,
and the Welsh and the Normans found themselves at opposite ends
of this range Their cultural differences were perhaps more
apparent in their religious practices than anywhere else.

As we have said before, Welsh religious practice was of the

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 161

Celtic variety, and was dominated by the Clan - a monastic
organization firmly based upon Welsh tribal structure.
Organization was extremely decentralized, and the enforcement of
discipline was virtually nonexistent. This led to a wide
variety of practices, ranging from the excessive asceticism of
the holy hermits to the secularism and corruption of monks
scarcely distinguishable from the tribesmen about them. This is
not to say that the Church in Wales did not serve the Welsh
people effectively. The important fact is that the organization
of the Welsh Church was extremely decentralized, and closely
integrated into the tribal structure of Welsh life. It could not
help but be a part of its society and a rallying point for Welsh
nationalism.18

The Church in Normandy exhibited characteristics almost
diametrically opposed to the Welsh Church. It observed Roman
usage and was already one of the most highly organized
representatives of this type. It exhibited fully the internal
division between secular and regular clergy which the Welsh
Church completely lacked. The secular clergy was firmly organized
into a diocesan structure based upon territorial divisions of the
duchy. The Church possessed immense wealth and engaged in a great
number of activities, both spiritual and secular, on the local
level. These activities were regulated by a chain of command
running directly through the bishops to the local clergy. The
final power, however, ultimately lay in the hands of the duke of
Normandy. Thus the Norman Church was organized, centralized, and,
in large measure, a tool of the central government. The regular
clergy, on the other hand, were more closely connected with the
feudal barons than with the central authority of Normandy. The
Normans had taken monasticism to their hearts, and the monastic
establishments of Normandy were perhaps the best regulated and
most dynamic of Europe. The great families of the duchy vied with
each other in founding and richly endowing monasteries on their
estates. In exchange for these grants, the monasteries provided
their patrons with chaplains, clerks, preferments for younger
sons, and final resting places.19

This was the pattern of religious organization which the Normans
brought with them into England, and later imported into Wales.
The

18G. W. S. Barrow, Feudal Britain: The
Completion of the Medieval Kingdoms, 1066-1314, p. 220.
Also see J. W. W. Bund, The Celtic Church of
Wales.

19The evidence of numerous charters attests to the
services which the monasteries provided their benefactors.

162 The Normans in South Wales

Church in Wales was quickly Normanized by the early conquerors,
and used as a means of enhancing the authority of the king. The
class system was replaced by an episcopal structure which was
soon staffed with Norman prelates. This had the double effect of
destroying one of the dynamic elements of Welsh tribal life, and
of placing the Church in Wales under direct royal domination. The
Norman bishops of Wales were responsible to the archbishop of
Canterbury, who was, in turn, responsive to the needs and desires
of the king. Thus the Church in Wales became closely bound to the
interests of the conquerors.20 So close was this
identification that in some areas the distinction disappeared
between the Norman cleric and the Norman conqueror. The bishop of
St. David's, for instance, was himself a lord marcher, maintained
a military force at his disposal, and exercised the right to
erect fortifications within his diocese.21 Indeed, the
church architecture of South Wales even today bears witness to
this early fusion of spiritual and military functions. The parish
churches of this region are distinguished by their defensible
sites, their thick walls, and, above all, their massive square
towers which resemble keeps far more than campaniles.
They are, in effect, small fortresses.

This manipulation of the Church in Wales to aid Norman interests
and to weaken Welsh resistance may have been of immediate benefit
to the early conquerors, but it worked to the eventual
disadvantage of the emergent Cambro-Norman society. In
the first place, the pro-Norman bias of the new ecclesiastical
organization alienated the Welsh. The tool of domination could
never become a means of reconciliation. Secondly, the episcopal
structure of the Church in Wales was such that it was less
responsive to the needs of the marcher lords and of Welsh
society in general than could have been wished. In its secular
aspects, Cambro-Norman society was able to develop in response to
its frontier environment because of its relative immunity from
royal authority. The Church in Wales did not enjoy such immunity,
and hence found it impossible to adapt freely to its
immediate environment. This is not to say that it made no
attempts to do so. During the anarchy of Stephen's reign,
Cambro-Norman prelates gained control of the bishoprics of
Llandaff and St. David's.22 They immediately began a
campaign to have St. David's recognized as the

metropolitan church of Wales. This would have substantially
diminished the power of Canterbury, and hence of the king, to
dominate Welsh ecclesiastical affairs. This attempt, and others
that followed, failed, and the Church in Wales remained the
captive of authorities whose interests were far removed from the
problems of the frontier.23

Much the same is true of the role which the regular clergy played
in the conquest of Wales. The monks were even more closely tied
to the interests of the invaders than was the ecclesiastical
structure which was established. As the Normans moved into Wales,
they enriched their Norman abbeys with the fruits of their
conquests. These great abbeys-Fecamp, St. Vincent, and their
English sisters such as Battle and St. Peter's-established
priories in their new possessions. The monks of these priories,
mostly Benedictine, performed a number of functions. They
exploited the lands and sent the profits back to the mother
abbeys; they furnished the frontier garrisons with chaplains and
the new lordships with clerks; and they attempted to
supplant the influence of the native Welsh clergy on the local
scene. They succeeded fairly well in all of these roles but the
last. The very location of these early priories-Chepstow,
Monmouth, Abergavenny, Brecon Ewyas Harold, and
others-gives some indication of the causes of this
failure.24 The early priories were erected in the
shadow of the invader's castles, and drew their sustenance from
land which had been but lately acquired from the
Welsh.25 These Benedictine monks were too closely
connected with recent injustices and too firmly allied with the
interests of the conquerors to inspire the trust and devotion of
the Welsh. The monastic orders which the early Norman invaders
had imported into Wales uniformly failed to adjust to the
frontier environment and to form a bridge over which the two
peoples might communicate. The Benedictine monk and the Norman
knight were equally out of place on the windswept and barren
moors in which the Welsh made their home. This should not be too
surprising. These monastic orders, like the Welsh episcopates,
were not free to adapt to their environment. The priories were,
after all, merely a device by which the distant and uninterested
Norman

23J E. Lloyd, A History of Wales from the
Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 1, 480 and
559.

24See A. H. Williams, An Introduction to the
History of Wales, Vol. II, Part 1, p. 25, table 1, for a
more complete list.

25See Davies, Wales in Maps, p. 43. For a
description of a few of these priories, see R. Graham, "Four
Alien Priories in Monmouthshire,"
The Journal of the British Archaeological Society,
new series, XXXIV (1928), 102-121.

164 The Normans in South Wales

holdings. They, and the abbeys which were founded in South Wales
in the early days, were instruments more of exploitation than of
evangelism.

It was not until near the end of the frontier in South Wales that
the Church introduced a monastic order which was capable of
spanning the gap which existed between the native Welsh and the
emergent Cambro-Norman society, and of bringing about some sort
of communication between the two. This was, of course, the
Cistercians, whose industry finally succeeded in developing the
sheep-raising which gave the Welsh highlands a viable economy and
allowed them to gain entry into the mainstream of European life.
The success of the Cistercians in Wales was rapid. A small
community was established in southwest Wales by Bernard, the
Cambro-Norman bishop of St. David's, and eventually took up
residence at Whitland, a place hallowed by the memory of Hywel
Dda. In 1147, the Cistercians absorbed the order of Savigny, and,
at a single stroke, became the possessor of the greatest abbeys
of South Wales: Tintern, Margan, and Neath. The Cistercians
seemed an order almost designed to fulfill a dynamic role along
the frontier, since the creed of their order compelled them to
seek out and to develop the wasteland and wilderness. It was not
long before this compulsion led them to do what no lowland
institution had been able to do-to cross the 600-foot contour
line and establish themselves firmly in the barren Welsh uplands.
In 1164, Robert Fitz-Stephen granted an extensive tract to
Whitland for the establishment of a cell in the uplands of
Cardigan. A cell of monks was sent out and established the
community which soon became known as Strata Florida.26
The austerity and rural attitudes of the Cistercians struck a
responsive chord in the Welsh among whom they settled. At the
same time, the new arrivals shared none of the odium of having
been the running dogs of the conquerors. The Welsh
enthusiastically joined in support of the Cistercians, and the
Lord Rhys became the patron of Strata Florida. From this center,
high in the plateaus of central Wales, daughter abbeys were
established throughout the Welsh peninsula. The Cistercian order
became the first institution fully shared between the
Cambro-Normans and the native Welsh. Its final victory, however,
lay after the frontier era had come to an end, and it was the
product not of the Norman

26For the history of the Cistercian establishment in
Wales, the best single source is L. Janauscheck, Originum
Cisterciencium, tomus 1. . . .

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 165

frontier in Wales, but of the internal frontier which lay within
the lowland environment of Europe itself.

In the last analysis, the Normans in South Wales failed to adapt
their religious institutions fully to the frontier environment in
which they lived and to use these institutions as a means of
establishing a stable and integrated culture which could unite
the upland and lowland environments of Wales. They failed for
two reasons. In the first place, the early invaders used their
religion as a means of conquest and of domination. The native
Welsh rejected an institution which was patently but another
instrument of the invaders' power. Secondly, and perhaps more
important, the pattern of religious organization was such that
control of the Church's activities along the frontier was placed
in the hands of authorities who were more interested in profit
and power than in creating an organization capable of adapting to
the peculiar conditions existing along the Welsh frontier. It was
only as the Norman frontier in Wales drew to a close that
a religious institution appeared that was something more than
merely a means to an end.27

(c) The Growth of Towns along the Frontier

The societies of the native Welsh and of the Norman invaders were
far different. We have discussed many of the distinctive Norman
institutions, such as the castle, the mounted knight, the manor
and the royally dominated episcopates; and we have attempted to
explain the role which each played in the Norman frontier
experience in Wales. One last institution remains to be
treated-the towns and cities which sprang up in the wake of the
conquerors. These were as alien an intrusion into the land as the
castles which were erected by the invaders. The small boroughs
were hated by the native Welsh who attacked them repeatedly.
Plunder was, of course, a primary motivation, but looting was
invariably followed by the most complete devastation possible.28
The Welsh saw that these settlements were a vulnerable, but
necessary, part of the Normans' program for the subjugation and
settlement of Wales.

27Others were to follow. The friars became popular
among the Cambro-Normans and, in some eases, among the Welsh. See
R. C. Easterling, "The Friars in Wales," Archaeologia
Cambrensis, Series VI, Vol. XIV (1914), pp. 323-356. See
also R. P. Conway, "The Black Friars of Wales: Recent Excavations
and Discoveries, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Series V,
Vol. VI (1889), pp. 97-105.

Town life was essentially foreign to Welsh society. The Welsh
were a pastoral people, and moved their residences frequently. As
a consequence, there was little in the way of fixed habitations
anywhere in Wales outside of the alas communities. As a matter of
preference, and as a result of the necessity of possessing
adequate grazing land, the Welsh avoided concentrating in any one
location. Their normal unit of settlement was the isolated family
homestead, or, at most, the rude hamlets which sometimes huddled
around the courts of local chieftains. Family groups tended to be
largely self-sufficient, and there existed little trade to
stimulate the growth of market centers. The very bases of
urbanization were nonexistent in Wales, and urbanism tended to be
repugnant to the sensibilities of the free tribesmen.

Such was not the case in Normandy. The people there were
primarily agrarian, and their method of tillage demanded a large
measure of cooperation amongst a substantial number of people.
The result was that the agricultural population of Normandy
tended to concentrate in small village communities and to operate
on a communal basis. The isolated farmstead was a rarity there,
and the people tended to favor community living.

Beginning in the early part of the eleventh century, a number of
factors began to operate which concentrated numbers of these
people in towns, or bourgs, and made this new urban settlement an
essential feature of Norman life. In the first place, the
economic life of Europe as a whole began to quicken, and
everywhere, Normandy included, favorably situated agricultural
villages, cathedral towns, and crossroads began to blossom out as
marketing centers. It was not lost on the nobles that control of
such centers could bring wealth and power. Where it was
possible, the nobles simply extended their authority over the
centers which had grown up, and demanded tolls and dues. For many
feudal lords, however, this was impossible, since no marketing
centers had grown up within their jurisdiction. As
a result, many nobles were led to establish such bourgs by fiat
and to concentrate all trading in their lands in these centers,
where tolls and duties could be regularly collected.

The success of such ventures led to a craze for borough-founding
throughout northern Europe. It was soon found that the
combination of a castle and a borough formed an economic unit of
unprecedented vitality. The castle attracted merchants with its
promise of protection and it guarantee of a local monopoly of
trade. At the same time,

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 167

the garrison of the castle provided the merchants and artisans of
the borough with at least a minimal market. The borough provided
for the material needs of the castle, and brought the lord a
substantial revenue. Finally, the burghers frequently produced
enough agricultural goods to provide an adequate food supply
for the entire community, and constituted an additional force of
defenders in time of attack. The castle plus the borough
possessed a strength and unity which the old combination of
castle and manor had never exhibited.

Thus the second motive for borough-founding emerged. It was soon
seen that the borough, and its attendant fortification, formed an
admirable unit for the settlement of uninhabited areas. It was
but a small step to the realization that such communities were
the most effective method of attracting settlers to occupy
and control newly conquered or disputed areas. The details of
this process are particularly clear in Languedoc, where T. F.
Tout notes that:

The origin of the bastides of Languedoc is to be
found in the days before the northern conquest when monasteries,
possessing large tracts of land and no tenants to till them,
attracted settlers to their estates by setting up little
fortresses for them to live in and investing the inhabitants with
modest immunities.29

A regular and clearly defined process of bourg establishment grew
up in the area, a process which was turned against the
inhabitants of the region when their northern conquerors used the
same methods to relocate numbers of their adherents
in the heart of the conquered land. The bastides and
villeneuves finished a process of conquest only begun by
the mounted knights.

Thus we can see the advantages which the Normans saw in the
establishment of bourgs-they provided revenue, a means of
settling waste lands, and an admirable adjunct to border
fortresses. The feudal nobility of Normandy entered
enthusiastically into the new process of artificially stimulated
urbanization. The years immediately preceding the Conquest of
England saw the establishment of boroughs in all parts of the
duchy, and the growing integration of such communities into the
Norman way of life.30

By the time the Normans appeared on the Welsh frontier, they had
had over a generation's experience in using boroughs as a means
of

29T. F. Tout, Medieval Town Planning: A
Lecture, pp. 10

30Haskins, Norman Institutions, pp.
48-49

168 The Normans in South Wales

pacifying and controlling marcher areas It was only natural that
they should embark on a similar course along their new frontier.
The process was begun quite quickly.

When William I directed Fitzosbern to build castles . . . he
sanctioned borough-making on a large scale, and only in a few
eases is royal confirmation spoken of. The makers of boroughs who
are not themselves tenants in chief get the consent of their
overlord, but the king was a lord who was not likely to refuse,
and, within their earldoms the earls Hereford, Shrewsbury, and
Chester had regalian rights that made royal consent unnecessary.
As the Leges Willelmi say, castles and boroughs and
cities were founded and built to be places for buying and selling
under control . . . so Fitzosbern and Roger Montgomery and Hugh
Lupus, at the Conqueror's desire, civilized the
border.31

The first step in this process lay in the establishment of Norman
appendages or suburbs, to the English boroughs which the
conquerors found already established along the border. Thus small
colonies of French and Normans were located near the English
communities of Hereford, Bristol, Shrewsbury, and others. These
new communities differed from their English neighbors in two
important respects In the first place, the English boroughs were
fundamentally agrarian in character, and trade was a purely
secondary pursuit. The Norman burghers were granted such small
and barren tracts of land that they were obviously intended to
devote their time primarily to trade and industry.32
The second major distinction between the English and Norman
settlements lay in the fact that each possessed a separate
charter of liberties. The English continued to operate under the
grants and immunities they had received under the Anglo-Saxon
kings, while the Norman settlers enjoyed liberties derived from
the charters granted to towns in Normandy.

It must be remembered that the borough charters of Normandy
varied widely in their terms. The particular needs of the
settlers, the generosity of the lord, and the prevailing
standards of the time all had a role in determining the
particular form and content of a given charter. Along the Welsh
frontier, however, one set of customs derived from a particular
Norman bourg achieved such popularity that it set the pattern for
urban organization in South Wales for the next

31M. Bateson, "The Laws of Breteuil," The
English Historical XVI (1901) 335-336.

32 Ibid.

, pp. 335-336 and 339-340.

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 169

century, and was exported to Ireland by the early conquerors'
grandsons. We refer, of course, to the famous laws of
Breteuil.33

Breteuil, a small bourg located near the border of Maine
and Blois, lay in a Norman marcher territory in the hands of
William Fitz-Osbern. The land was not good, but the town was
firmly established and more than held its own in the face of
repeated devastation of the area. It was perhaps only natural
that Fitz-Osbern should turn to Breteuil as a model for the urban
settlement of his new lands on the marches of Wales. The specific
conditions embodied in the laws of Breteuil are difficult to
reconstruct, but enough can be discerned to determine that they
were distinguished by their liberality. The burgesses were
allotted specific building sites within the bourg and were
allowed small amounts of agricultural land outside the walls.
They were allowed to sublet or to rent parts of their lots and to
engage in trade within the town. For all of these privileges,
they were charged a maximum of twelve pence, and their annual
rent was not allowed to exceed this same figure of twelve pence.
The burgesses were free to give up their positions and to leave
their burgages at will, without penalty. If the lord were forced
to borrow money from one of the burgesses, a maximum limit was
set upon the time for which the lord could enjoy the loan. The
burgesses were especially well protected against abuses of the
law. They could not be forced to serve or stand trial in any
court other than that of the bourg. Within the bourg, they
could not be amerced a fine of more than twelve pence (except in
certain royal offenses), and, if imprisoned, were allowed to meet
their own bail.34 All in all, the laws of Breteuil
provided the burgesses with a considerable amount of freedom of
action, and immunity from the possible abuse of his power by the
founding lord, and all for a quite modest sum.

It was, in all probability, this very liberality which made the
laws of Breteuil so successful in providing the model charter for
new boroughs established on the Welsh frontier. Life on the Welsh
frontier was not such as to encourage artisans and merchants to
forsake the secure and fertile fields of England and Normandy to
re-establish themselves in the raw wilderness which the early
frontier must have

33Miss Bateson's famous article on "The Laws of
Breteuil" was carried in a series of issues of The English
Historical Review, XV (1900), 73-78, 302-318, 496-523,
754-757; XVI (1901), 92-110, 332-345. For a dissenting
opinion, see M. deW. Hemmeon, Burgage Tenure in Medieval
England.

34See M. Bateson, "The Laws of Breteuil," and J. H.
Round, Studies in Peerage and Family History, pp.
183-184.

170 The Normans in South Wales

been. And yet we know that such men did immigrate into this
region and did set up such boroughs. We also know that most of
these boroughs had a single feature in common-they were organized
under the laws of Breteuil. This similarity is too frequent to be
a mere coincidence. It is far easier to believe that the early
conquerors had simply found that liberties and immunities which
had drawn men to the isolated and beleaguered bourg of Breteuil
were also capable of inducing them to undertake the immense task
of establishing cities in the Welsh wilderness.

The settlers often succeeded, and the modern cities of Hereford,
Cardiff, Builth, Brecon, Carmarthen; and others bear eloquent
testimony to this success.35 Far too frequently,
however, they failed. The boroughs which must once have lain
under the walls of Clifford's Castle, Wigmore, Ewyas Harold,
Skenfrith, and the other castles which the conquerors
constructed, have disappeared, and, at the most, quiet villages
remain, existing as farm residences and as centers for the slight
tourist trade which comes to view the nearby ruins. It must never
be forgotten that for the most part the bourgs of the Welsh
frontier were an artificial growth, stimulated by the needs of a
garrison society.36 The bourgs and bourg life
of the frontier were merely extensions of the castles near which
they were built. There existed no organic economic basis for
their existence until the growth of the sheep-raising industry of
the Welsh interior provided the region with an exportable
commodity other than a few hides, horses, and
slaves.37 Only then did a true urban development take
place in South Wales.

This is not to say that the original establishments failed in
their purpose, but merely that the purposes of these frontier
towns were more limited than one might recognize at first glance.
They monopolized trade within their various localities and thus
made it possible for the marcher lords to control this important
activity. They ministered to the material needs of the frontier
garrisons, and, to some extent, brought a touch of civilization
to an otherwise lonely and isolated region. Through trade they
slowly introduced the Welsh tribesmen to luxuries which, in time,
lessened the isolation and fierce

35M. Bateson, "The Laws of Breteuil," XV (1900),
516.

36Ibid. XVI (1901), 345.

37 See E. A. Lewis, "The Development of Industry and
Commerce in Wales during the Middle Ages," The Transactions
of the Royal Historical Society, new series, XVII (1903),
121-173.

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 171

independence of their enemies and rendered them more susceptible
to other civilizing influences which were to follow. Above all,
however, these small communities offered a security in numbers,
and the laws of Breteuil offered liberties and immunities which
drew badly needed men to the frontier and integrated them into a
social organism which existed there. Neither the Norman castle
nor the Norman borough in South Wales can be considered as
separate entities. The basic organization in the Norman conquest
of South Wales was a combination, or better still, an
amalgamation of the two.

(d) Literature

Up to the present, our discussions have been mainly confined to
those social institutions which were characteristic of Norman
society along the Welsh frontier. Although such analyses are
important, they do little to illuminate the personal attitudes of
the people who made up this society. We are fortunate that
the Welsh frontier in the twelfth century produced two men of
letters who were able, in some measure, to speak for a population
otherWise rather silent and impersonal. It is not our purpose to
speak of the literary merits of the works of these men, nor to
discuss their roles in the history of literature, but to attempt
to see in them some personal reactions to the peculiar
environment of frontier life.

The first of these literary figures in point of time was Geoffrey
of Monmouth (d. 1155), renowned as the author who introduced the
Arthurian romances into European literature. It seems most
probable that Geoffrey was neither Welsh, English, nor
Norman, but Breton in extraction. He may have been the son of a
settler in, or himself an immigrant to, the Breton colony
established at Monmouth by Wihenoc, who took over the area after
the fall of Roger of Breteuil. At any rate, Geoffrey probably
knew the Breton language and was thus able to communicate with
the Welsh inhabitants of the region where he spent his youth. His
writings make it obvious that he was well acquainted with this
lovely area, the locale of many of the folk tales which the Welsh
and Bretons held in common. The greater part of his life,
however, was not spent in this frontier region, but in Oxford. He
first appears as a witness to an Oxford charter in 1129, and it
seems likely that he spent most of the remainder of his life
there.38

38See Lloyd, A History of Wales, II, 524
ff., for a short discussion of the details of Geoffrey's
career.

172 The Normans in South Wales

In 1136 his great work, the Historia Regum
Britanniae, appeared, and it is probable that much of the
work was done at Oxford. The subject matter of the work, however,
returns to the traditions and region of his youth. In form,
the Historia purports to be a history of the kings of Britain
from the earliest times to the death of Cadwaladr. In essence,
however, the book is a vehicle for the presentation of the Celtic
romances surrounding Arthur, a messianic hero who would someday
return to free the Celts of their oppressors. The scene of action
ranges over the entire island of Britain, but tends to
concentrate in South Wales, and especially the region of
Monmouthshire, where the Celtic golden age reached its height
under Arthur. The book glorifies the Celts. but Geoffrey takes
pains throughout to impress upon the reader that he means to
glorify the Breton Celts, and not the Welsh, who were but the
remnants of the once-mighty race.39

The millennial element dominates the close of the book, which
ends with the Saxons in complete control, and the Celts awaiting
the time appointed by God when they should again gain control of
Britain. Geoffrey emphasizes, however, that the restoration not
to come from Wales, but from Britanny. Is there a general point
to this entire account? Geoffrey is nowhere explicit, but it
seems as if he is pointing out in the Historia that the
long-awaited day of liberation had already arrived; the Bretons,
and their Norman friends and allies, had returned to "Ynys
Prydain," and had overthrown the Saxon oppressors. If this is
true, then the Historia Regum Britanniae represents a Breton's
attempt to justify his people's status along the Welsh frontier
as a fulfillment of the messianic legends to which both Bretons
and Welsh paid homage. Inherent in this is the plea for the
Welsh to recognize this fact, to embrace their Breton brothers,
and rebuild the golden age in Monmouthshire.

The Historia was written in the flush of success that
attended the effective frontier policies of Henry I. The native
Welsh were controlled, if not conquered, and the work of
settlement and building in the frontier proceeded in security. It
was quite possible, in these years, for Geoffrey to see in the
new order of things the beginning of the long-awaited golden age.
In the years that followed, however,

39Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Historia Regum
Britannia of Geoffrey of Monmouth, ed. A. Griscom,
especially pp. 532-535. For an excellent discussion of the
Arthurian romance and its relation to Irish and Welsh folklore,
see R. S. Loomis, Wales and the Arthurian Legend.

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 173

Geoffrey's faith must have been severely shaken. The anarchy
attending the reign of Stephen followed quickly on the heels of
the appearance of the Historia, and the entire frontier was
plunged into chaos. The work of the preceding generation
vanished overnight, and all hopes of brotherhood and peace
vanished in the settlers' grim struggle for survival. Thus was a
period of disillusionment for the settlers along the Welsh
frontier, and also for Geoffrey.

Little of this would be known were it not for the fact that, in
his old age, Geoffrey published a second and relatively
little-known work, the Vita Merlini.40 It first appeared in about
1151,41 after twenty-five years of anarchy in English
affairs. The Vita is an incredibly involved Latin poem of over
1,500 hexameter lines purporting to present the life and
prophecies of the famous Celtic seer Merlin. It was inevitable
that much more of Geoffrey than of Merlin went into the
complicated and obscure poetic prophecies which dominate the
work. Although most of these are almost incomprehensible, some
fees stand out with startling clarity. These few indicate that a
great change had come over Geoffrey's attitude toward life along
the frontier, and over his millennial hopes.

In the course of his account, Geoffrey puts the following
prophecy in the mouth of a raving Merlin:

Then the Normans, sailing over the water in their
wooden ships, bearing their faces in front and in back, shall
fiercely attack the Angles with their iron tunics and their sharp
swords, and shall destroy them and possess the field. They shall
subjugate many realms to themselves and shall rule foreign
peoples for a time until the Fury, flying all about, shall
scatter her poison over them. Then peace and faith and all virtue
shall depart, and on all sides throughout the country the
citizens shall engage in battles. Man shall betray man and no one
shall be found a friend. The husband, despising his wife, shall
draw near to harlots, and the wife, despising her husband, shall
marry whom she desires. There shall be no honor kept for the
church and the order shall perish. Then shall bishops bear arms,
and armed camps shall be built. Men shall build towers and walls
in holy ground, and they shall give to the soldiers what should
belong to the needy. Carried away by riches they shall run along
the path of worldly things and shall take from God what the holy
bishop shall forbid.42

This impassioned speech can only be a description of the
anarchy

40Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Vita Merlini,
ed. and trans. J. J. Parry.

41Ibid, pp. 9-15.

42Ibid. pp. 70-71 (J. J. Parray's translation).

174 The Normans in South Wales

existing in Britain under the reign of Stephen. It is especially
applicable to conditions along the border at this time. The
phrase, "Then shall bishops bear arms . . . Men shall build
towers and walls in holy ground . . ." seems especially
indicative, since we have only recently pointed out that such
activities were especially characteristic of the Church in Wales.
If it is true that Geoffrey earlier pictured the Norman Conquest
of England and the settlement of the frontier as the fulfillment
of God's ancient promise to the Celtic people, then it is equally
true that the Vita Merlini is witness to his
terrible disillusionment. Earlier he had envisaged the settlement
of South Wales as a cooperative venture between the natural
heirs, the Bretons their faithful friends and allies the Normans,
and the native Welsh. The Normans had betrayed this noble
venture, and it was now evident that the time had not yet arrived
for the golden age to begin. Faced with this fact, and troubled
by the calamities which were being visited upon the Welsh
frontier where he spent his youth, Geoffrey took his stand firmly
on the side of his Celtic heritage-both Breton and Welsh-when he
spoke through the mouth of Merlin's sister, Ganieda, saying:

Normans depart and cease to bear weapons through our
native realm With your cruel soldiery. There is nothing left with
which to feed your greed for you have consumed everything that
creative nature has produced in her happy fertility. Christ, aid
thy people! restrain the lions and give to the country peace and
the cessation of wars.43

Ganieda speaks not only for the Welsh, but for the entire people
of England. Whether intentionally or not, Geoffrey has her speak
especially for the settlers along the Welsh frontier. The reign
of Stephen; and the anarchy which attended it was a period of
disillusionment for the settlers, and nowhere does this
disillusionment appear more clearly than in the writings of
Geoffrey of Monmouth. In 1136 he awaited the imminent arrival of
the golden age of ancient prophecy; in 1151, he longs only for
peace.

In the course of time, peace, after a fashion, did return to the
frontier. In the intervening period, however, the character of
the settlers had changed, and the bases had been laid for a
distinctive If Cambro-Norman society. This society was
little prone to chiliastic dreams of peace. Nurtured on war, they
viewed the world about them with a realism that would have been
abhorrent to Geoffrey. This new

43Ibid., pp. 116-117 (J. J. Parry's translation).

The Cambro-Norman Society of South Wales 175

society accepted their Norman and Welsh traditions with pride,
and confronted their frontier environment with aplomb.

It was not until the Norman frontier in South Wales was drawing
to a close that this Cambro-Norman society found a spokesman. The
character of this man, Giraldus Cambrensis, made the wait
worthwhile. Like his fellow Cambro-Normans, he was proud,
turbulent, and realistic. He was, moreover, one of the most
prolific authors of his age.44 Enough has been written
about him, both by himself and by others, to make any extended
analysis of his work superfluous. At the same time it is
unnecessary to say much about his observations and attitudes
regarding life on the Welsh frontier, for they have formed one of
the major bases for the present work.45 One
observation may not be out of place, however, for, as Geoffrey of
Monmouth represents the first disillusionment of the early
settlers' hopes, Giraldus illustrates the final disappearance of
the frontier-in the Turnerian sense-from the Cambro-Norman
mentality.

In the Descriptio Kambriae Giraldus, in typical
fashion, undertakes to advise the world as to the proper way to
go about the conquest and final subjugation of Wales. His final
solution (omitted in later editions) was couched in the following
words:

Further, I would not know how to hold a land so wild
and so impenetrable, and inhabitants so untameable. There are
some who think that it would be far safer and more advised for a
prudent prince to leave it altogether as a desert to the wild
beasts and to make a forest of it.46

There is a sad note of defeatism in these words. The mentality of
the frontier is one that sees opportunity and progress lying over
the horizon Giraldus feels none of this. He instead suggests that
the complete elimination of the frontier, and its transformation
into a desert fit only for wild beasts, would represent a final
victory for the Cambro-Normans. It is a long way from the golden
age of Geoffrey to the desert of Giraldus.